Sunday, March 10, 2013

I first came across Maya Angelou without knowing I had. There was a period in my life when I listened almost exclusively to Ben Harper and it was in his song 'I'll Rise' that I met Maya, through Ben. Her words and his voice combine to make from her poem, his song. There are just some things that stick with you, and this is well and truly one of them.

For me it's everything I didn't know when I first heard this song when all I could do was grasp at its meaning. It's everything I know now and the way it stamps its truth over and over on my life.

The truth and power of this poem is its unrelenting, forceful hope that looks arrogantly at struggle as if to say, 'so what?'
To every horrible tragedy, to every end-of-the-world, to every love lost - 'So what?'To every setback, to every unexpected disappointment, to every person that says no - 'So what?'
To every job loss, to every break down, to every test you will fail, every error you will make - 'So what?'
To everything you feel you cannot fix, you cannot change - 'So what?'
To every time you've reached the point of no return, wondering how you get back from this - 'So what?'
To every single thing the world will throw at you, over and over and over - 'So what?'Still I'll rise.